Polistes associus Kohl

Schmid-Egger, Christian, Achterberg, Kees van, Neumeyer, Rainer, Jerome Moriniere, & Schmidt, Stefan, 2017, Revision of the West Palaearctic Polistes Latreille, with the descriptions of two species an integrative approach using morphology and DNA barcodes (Hymenoptera, Vespidae), ZooKeys 713, pp. 53-112 : 77-78

Polistes associus Kohl Fig. 2

Polistes associa Kohl, 1898, Ann. Naturh. Hofmus., Wien 13: 89 + Taf. III. Syntypes males (NHMW, male from Poros examined by RN & CvA), type localities Poros (Greece) and Helenendorf [Goygol], Azerbaijan. Male from Poros designated as lectotype by Bluthgen on label, but not in Bluthgen (1943: 121). The male is herewith designated, new designation.

Diagnosis.

The recognition of P. associus females may be problematic because of their similarity to P. nimpha , in particular specimens from SW Asia. Females can be separated by colour differences only (see key to species), although in western Asia P. nimpha often exhibits high levels of colour variation.

The male is unique by the combination of narrow temples (genae) in dorsal view and a markedly depressed clypeus with distinct lateral ridges. The dorsal length of the apical antennal segment is about 3.0 times its maximum width, and longer than in similar species.

Distribution.

Southern Europe and Turkey, northwards to Switzerland, southwards to Israel, eastwards to Azerbaijan. Guiglia (1972) also mentions India (Jammu and Kashmir) and China, but these records may refer to the similar species P. chinensis (Fabricius, 1793).

Specimens examined.

Europe: Spain, France, Italy, Switzerland, Croatia, Bulgaria, Macedonia, Montenegro, Greece. Asia: Israel.

Genetic results.

We regard P. associus as a member of the P. dominula group instead of the P. gallicus group due to the results of genetic data (see discussion below for details). Specimens from Croatia and northern Italy exhibited no intraspecific variation (Table 1).